Part 3: Transitioning Between Kingdoms by Ern Baxter

Transitioning Between Kingdoms is the third in The King And His Army, the five
part series of powerful and relevant prophetic messages delivered by
Ern Baxter in 1975 at the Lakes Bible Week in the UK.

My colleague and good friend Arthur Wallis pointed out to me at
breakfast this morning, before my eyes were quite open, that I had made
two blunders last night – which I think isn’t bad for such a long
sermon. (*laughter*). I had attributed the statement; “I have set my
king upon my holy hill of Zion” to Psalm 110 and it’s actually Psalm
2. (*laughter*). I am sure that He is going to do it whether it’s in
Psalm 2 or in Psalm 110, but its good to be accurate. And then I had
attributed Samuel’s lineage to Levi and he was an Ephramite. Now of
course I had done both of these deliberately because I wanted to
destroy any illusions you may have had to my infallibility.
(*laughter*). I may tell you if it’s any comfort to you that I have
made some dandies in the past, such as the night that I put the ring on
the Prodigal Son’s toe. (*laughter*). What further added to my
discomfort on that occasion was that I couldn’t figure out why
everybody was laughing. (*laughter*). Thank God for laughter! When
God saved me, He converted my ‘laugher’ and my ‘cry-er’ and
hand-clapper and my jumper-up and downer as well as every other part of
me. Thank God that the last two nights are over! (*laughter*). I
don’t like dealing with dismal aspects of history but they are
necessary and we must take the bitter with the sweet. We have been
talking on the last two nights about a man by the name of Saul, son of
Kish, who stood head and shoulders above all Israel. We referred to
him as the “Head and Shoulders Man”.

I was teaching on this in a conference in America – and do you have
“Head and Shoulders Shampoo” over here? (*laughter*). On the last
night of my ministry I came up to the pulpit and there was a tube of
Head and Shoulders Shampoo on it. (*laughter*). I’m thinking of
having it framed and put it up in my study. We are teaching on the
assumption, which we feel is valid that as kingship was inaugurated in
Israel that God allowed Saul to become the first king and he was the
choice of the people. Furthermore he was a Head and Shoulders Man.
The Head speaks of human wisdom, and the shoulders speak of human
strength. Now I don’t know how well you have heard what I am saying or
if you have been able to put it into the context that I hoped you would
put it, and that is that Saul was the king of the Israelites, and that
he was a king who tried to run Israel by the human mind and human
strength. It is interesting that the Ark was not consulted in the days
of Saul. Saul did not attempt to govern Israel under divine authority,
and it would appear that the only times he turned to divine authority
was when he needed Samuel to dig him out of a scrape. As we learned
last night, he finished up his life in deception and in demonic
delusion and torture and was killed by an Amalakite, whom he should
have wiped out when God told him to wipe the Amalakites out – instead
an Amalakite wiped him out ultimately. But we finished up by pointing
out that the one who killed Saul was God Himself. A rather terrible
thing to say, and yet, we read on several occasions that God killed men
because they were just too bad to live and had outlived their
usefulness. Now we have already discovered that Samuel told Saul that
the kingdom was going to be taken from him and given to a neighbour who
was better than he was. So Saul knew that his days were finished and
that the kingdom was going to be given to someone else. Tonight we are
going to look at the transition from one king to the other. And there
are some very practical lessons here that I trust we can hear and
benefit by, and I pray that God will give us clear thought and
articulation so that we can bring them to you.

So I’d like it if we can break in at the end of 1st Samuel 15. As
we look at men like Samuel and other great men in Israel’s history, we
are inclined to put an aura of perfection around them and of course
none of them merit that. All men outside of our Lord Jesus Christ had
their flaws. Although Samuel was a great man and was obviously morally
pure and could stand before the congregation of Israel and challenge
them to charge him with any act of moral impropriety – yet he was still
a man, and he had his areas of weakness as we will discover tonight.
But they are weaknesses that I think will be very quickly recognised as
weaknesses that we ourselves have. After Samuel had to tell Saul that
the kingdom was being taken from him, he went up to Ramah (v34).

“But Saul went up to his house at Gibeah. And Samuel did not see
Saul again until the day of his death. For Samuel grieved over Saul
and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.” Samuel
grieved over Saul.

Why did Samuel grieve over Saul? I think that Saul was exactly what
the Bible said he was. A tall, handsome, broad shouldered, attractive
man, and Israel’s first king, who had at the beginning showed such
promise as he destroyed Nahesh, and was received by all Israel as
king. Then Samuel watched him deteriorate as he disregarded divine
order and forced himself to sacrifice at Gilgal – refused to deal with
the flesh and wipe out the Amalakites – celebrating his fleshly
disobedience by building a monument to himself and going on to
rationalise his disobedience and tell Samuel that what he had done with
the Amalakites was what he thought was best to do. That’s where the
‘Head and Shoulders’ thing came in. God said utterly destroy. Saul
said, “I disagree with God – we should save Agag and we should save the
best of the flocks.” And for all of this, he was disallowed the
kingship. However, Samuel grieved over him.

Now we move into (v1). I think that Samuel grieved over him because
he found himself attracted by this man. I hope that what I’m going to
inject here is not foreign or alien to the text. But I think that all
of us tonight are impressionable. Big things impress us! I don’t mean
any offence if there are Roman Catholic friends here tonight, but I
remember reading years ago the biography of Cardinal Newman, and there
comes the point in his life when as an Anglican he is thinking about
changing over to the Roman church, and he is going to make a trip to
Rome, which in those days was arduous and difficult. The story of his
trip to Rome is quite interesting but when he came in sight of St
Peters, he was so impressed by what he saw that he said, “This must be
the true church.” Now what impressed him was the magnificence and the
grandeur of the externality of the Roman church. He was impressed by
it. He said, “This must be the true church.” I’ll never forget that
phrase – it gripped me. Because I saw this man making his final
decision in terms of being impressed by St Peters. So he came back to
England and he went to a parish priest, dropped to his knees and said
“Receive me into the true church,” and went on to become one of Rome’s
princes. I think if we’re honest tonight every one of us are impressed
by the things we see. Big things – things impress us. I am sure
Samuel was impressed by Saul, and he grieved over the fact that Saul
had failed, because Saul had impressed him. This great handsome broad
shouldered hunk of flesh, “Now the Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will
you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over
Israel?’” Now that’s a rebuke. He is saying, “Samuel how long are you
going to grieve over what I have had to do with Saul? Are you going to
agree with me? Or are you going to go on weeping in your closet over
the fact that this man has failed? Who are you with Samuel?”

I wonder sometimes if many of our decisions are not made in the
realm of sentiment, rather than in the realm of principle. God had
rejected Saul. It was Samuel’s duty to stand with God. Let me digress
to give you another Biblical illustration of this. When the Tabernacle
was inaugurated, the two sons of Aaron – Nadab and Abihu – took strange
fire into the sanctuary and fire from God came out and burned them,
killed them on the spot. God spoke to Moses and said, “Tell your
brother Aaron that he must not grieve over what has happened, for the
anointing oil is upon him.” Now this seems severe. It seems to be a
harsh demand on the part of God. That old gentleman had to stand there
and watch his nephews carry their cousins, Nadab and Abihu, yet in
their linen clothes or coats past him, out to be buried in their coats
outside the camp. And he couldn’t shed a tear because Aaron stood in
the temple as the representative of God with the anointing oil upon
him. This was a divine judgement, and even in terms of his own flesh
and blood, he must not show emotion – he must not in any way indicate
that he disagreed with God’s judgement, and I can imagine that he stood
there biting his lips as he saw the inert forms of his two boys go by
to be buried. He would never see them again! Undoubtedly he conjured
up visions of their childhood – when they were little fellows running
around their mother’s knee, and now in this great hour, when they were
to share with him in one of Israel’s highest moments – the inauguration
of the Tabernacle. His boys had failed, and he couldn’t allow himself
a trembling lip. But he had to stand there stoically, and watch the
boys go by him to their premature funeral, and not in any way show
emotion because the anointing oil was upon him, and he had to stand
with the verdict of God.

It seems severe doesn’t it? Yet the question tonight is – how much
are we motivated by sentiment and traditional attachment and religious
nostalgia? How much are we doing what we’re doing not out of
principle, but because we are sentimentally attached to something that
God has left? What is the answer? God said, “Samuel how long are you
going to carry on like this? Are you going to stand with Me or are you
going to lament what I have had to do with Saul? Where are you
Samuel? I will tell you what I want you to do if you are with Me.
Fill your horn with oil and go!” Now what does that mean? It means get
a new anointing and get with what God is doing! Stop hanging around
the old tombs and getting nostalgic over the revivals of other days and
going back to see what God did yesterday – but through disobedience is
no longer related to the today of God. Stop living in the nostalgic
past! Get hold of the new anointing that is moving in the air! Grab
hold of your horn of oil and let’s get going! The past is done – let’s
be done with the past and let’s move on in God. Get hold of your horn
of oil, fill it with oil and let’s go. Fill your horn with oil and
go. I will send you Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have selected a king
for Myself from among his sons.”

Now remember Saul was the people’s choice. God has now chosen a
king for Himself. “But Samuel said, ‘How can I go? When Saul hears of
it, he will kill me.’” That was a very valid fear. He said, “Now just
a minute Lord! Let’s talk this over. That’s all very fine for You to
send me down with a new anointing all full of the Holy Ghost and
talking in tongues with goose bumps and my hair standing on end …”
(*laughter*). “It’s great Lord for you to get me involved in this
charismatic thing but Lord – Saul is still alive and if he hears I have
gone down there to anoint another king while he’s still living, then I
am dead!’” Saul, the fleshly religious authority, was still nominally
in charge, and therefore a threat to the new anointing. How many are
hearing anything?

“And the Lord said (you know the Lord is not above a little
arranging. Have you ever noticed that? The Lord is pretty wise. He
knows how to fix things) “I’m not going to ask you to walk out and
stick your head in a noose.” He said, “Let’s do it this way. Go down
and hold some special meetings. (*laughter*) And while you are down
there have a laying on of hands service.” (*laughter*). He said, “Take
a heifer with you and say, ‘I’ve come to sacrifice to the Lord, but be
sure that Jesse and his sons attend the sacrifice.’ And you shall
invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do.
You shall anoint the one who I designate you.’”

Now we are coming to the difference between democratically chosen
‘Head and Shoulders’ ecclesiastical authority, and divinely ordained
spiritual authority; as we move along, you will understand why
un-spiritual people don’t understand spiritual authority. So Samuel
did what the Lord said. He obeyed. Samuel had learned, ever since God
talked to him as a little boy in the temple, that God could be
trusted. So Samuel said,
“Alright if that’s the way it is – then I will go.” So he went and
prepared the people with all the proper purifications for the sacrifice
that was to come. He told them to consecrate themselves.

Now (v6). Here we see Samuel’s humanity coming through again, and I
think we will all relate to Samuel if we are honest. For God’s sake
let’s be honest in this hour. If anything will destroy what God is
doing in your life or mine, or in our lives in this hour, it is
dishonesty. God is calling for a kind of candour that He has never
required from us in the past. I think in the past, if I may take a
Scripture out of context, He winked at the times of our ignorance. But
now He requires us all to repent. I know that is out of context, but I
think God is bringing new pressure on His people for integrity, such as
He has never done before. “Then it came about when they entered, that
he looked at Eliab.”

Now what happened was that the laying on of hands time came, and he
said, “I feel that Brother Jesse should bring his sons forward and we
ought to bless them.” So brother Jesse brings his sons forward, and
they all line up. Samuel looks them over, and there they are lined up
from the eldest to the youngest. He looks at the oldest one whose name
is Eliab and man – he is a dandy! Great tall broad shoulders, fine
head and Samuel “looked.” And Samuel “thought.” And Samuel “concluded.”
And Samuel got it wrong. (*laughter*). If you and I do that, then we
will be wrong too. For we walk not by sight but by faith, and many
times we have looked, and we have thought, and we have said, “surely
the Lord’s anointed is before me?”

“But the Lord said to Samuel.” You see Samuel was ready to take that
horn of oil, get it over with and get on home. He was reaching for the
horn of oil when the Lord said, “Samuel?” “Yes, Lord?” “That’s not
him.” “But Lord – look at him!” “Samuel I have had it up to here with
‘Head and Shoulders’ men!” “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Don’t look at his
appearance or the height of his stature because I have rejected him.
For God sees not as man sees for man looks at the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks at the heart.’” Samuel says, “Okay Lord, but he
looks good to me.”

Now this confirms what I said at the beginning, that Samuel was
still equating kingship the way all of those oriental people did, with
a big strapping fellow. Anyone who has read a history of those times
knows that for a man to become a tribal chief or a king, he usually had
to arrive at that position by beating up every contender. He had to be
the heavyweight champion of his tribe. He arrived there because there
wasn’t another man who could stand there in swordplay or in any form of
physical combat. He was the strongest and the mightiest and that’s why
he was king. Samuel was still going by the human criterion and he
said, “Lord, I think you’re passing up a good thing when you pass up
Eliab.” So the Lord said, “Samuel please let me run My own business.”

We have done that through the centuries – we have said, “this ought
to do it – my, look – that ought to do it.” God has given us gentle
nudges and little hints, and we have got a whole array of Eliabs and
Head and Shoulders men, and God will bring along some illiterate dummy,
and fill him with the Holy Spirit, and He blasts the work of God wide
open, while all the PhDs are sitting there wondering what is happening
to them.

(v8) “Then Jesse called Abinadab.” He was the next tallest, and made
him pass before Samuel, and he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this
one.” “Next Jesse made Shamah pass by, but it was not him.” (v10) “Thus
Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to
Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’” He said, “Lord? We’ve run out
of boys! (*laughter*). I’m sure you told me to come down here and
anoint someone, and You said You would show me who he was, and I have
been obedient to you. Now we have got no more boys.”

The Lord said, “That’s what you think. Ask the old man if he has
got another son.” “Sire, do you have another son?” “Well yes, I’ve got
another. There remains yet the youngest but he’s got peach fuzz on his
face and is out tending the sheep. He sits out there with a harp
composing choruses, so I didn’t even bother to bring him in because I
was sure you wouldn’t want him.” Samuel said, “Look sire, by now I’ve
decided to let God do what He wants. God wants him, so send for your
boy.”

Now notice the urgency of this. “Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send
and bring him for we will not sit down until he comes here.’” “We will
not sit down until he comes here. We will not take our ease until
God’s order is brought in. We will not take our rest until Jesus
Christ has been declared Lord, no matter how. The Head and Shoulders
thing may be declared dead, and it may be over, but we will not sit
still until God’s order is ushered in. The first order of business –
priority number one is for God’s order to be established. The fact
that the old order is on it’s way out is not enough – the positive must
take place. We will not sit down until he comes!”

“So he sent and brought him in.” He was ruddy – a redhead with
beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance, and the Lord said, “Arise
anoint him for this is he.” Can’t you see I never cease to be charmed
by the picture of young David. They sent a messenger after him and
he’s out there in the hills you know, probably working on a new one.
(*laughter*). The messenger said, “David, the prophet is in Bethlehem,
and your fathers and your brothers and the people of Bethlehem are all
gathered, and your father is sending for you.” David said, “Me? What’s
it all about?” “I’m not sure – I’m just sent to get you.” So he slings
his harp over his shoulder and takes his shepherd’s crook and comes in
and stands there, and his eyes are as big as saucers, and he has got
stardust in his hair, and he bows to his father and bows to the
prophet. God said to the prophet, “Go anoint him.” Now, I am not too
sure whether David knew what it was all about. But the prophet moves
over and takes the horn of oil, and he anointed him in the midst of his
brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David mightily from that
day forward. Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

Now a very important point is this- that while the Head and
Shoulders Man was still nominally and officially on the throne, God
already had anointed the new order. Let him that hath an ear, hear.
This has always been the case – there has always been the overlap.
When Jesus Christ was anointed in the Jordan, He was anointed as the
Son of God – He walked out of those waters and He wasn’t going to
finish His walk until He had made all His enemies His footstool. He
was king from that moment on, but the nominal Head and Shoulders
government of Israel still ruled. David was now God’s king. But
nominally and officially the Head and Shoulders Man was still in
charge. Are you hearing this? Because from now on, we are going to
find out how to act in that time of overlap.

Look at (v14); “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an
evil spirit from the Lord terrorised him.” The Spirit of the Lord left
him while he was still king. He wasn’t the king of the Hittites or the
Hivvites or the Jebusites, but the king of Israel. The covenant
community! But in actuality, he no longer had kingly authority.

David the youth – the lad was the new thing. Not Jesse’s first son
or second, or third, or fourth or fifth but his eighth. For eight is
the number of a new beginning. And David was Jesse’s eighth son. One
is the number of God. Two is the number of fellowship. Three is the
number of manifestation. Four is the number of the earth. Five is the
number of grace. Six is the number of man. Seven is the number of
completion. Eight is the number of a new beginning. What are we
seeing? That David was anointed to be the king of God’s new day!

This is the day that the Lord hath made! This is the new day, and
David the eighth was anointed for the new day, but he is anointed while
the Head and Shoulders Man was still nominally in charge.

(v15); “Saul’s servants then said to him,’Behold now an evil spirit
from God is terrorising you. Let our Lord command our servants who are
before you. Let them seek a man who is skilled to play the harp and it
shall come about when the evil spirit from God is upon you and then he
shall play the harp with his hand and then you will be well.’ So Saul
said to his servants, ‘Provide for me now a man who can play well and
bring him to me.’ Then one of the young men answered, ‘Behold I have
seen the son of Jesse the Bethlemite who is a skilful musician and a
mighty man of valour – a handsome man and the Lord is with him.’”

Out of all the sons of Israel, isn’t it amazing that the finger of
destiny should fall on David? The law of compound probability would
suggest that it was probably a million to one that David was the one
who would come in and sing his spiritually inspired choruses to a demon
demented and terrorised king. “So Saul sent messengers to his servant
Jesse and said, ‘Send me your son David who is with the flock.’ So
Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a jug of wine, a young goat and
sent them to Saul by David his son. Then David came to Saul and
attended him.”

Note this will you? “And Saul loved him greatly.” You know I don’t
want to read more in here than I see, and I don’t want to impose on you
an interpretation that seems to be strained, but oh, I see so much that
is contemporary here. I don’t know if you do. I wonder if you’re
seeing what I’m seeing. That the Head and Shoulders thing, that has
long since lost it’s anointing – the structural, democratic,
ecclesiastically maintained thing, devoid so much of life, and when it
sees life – it’s first reaction is to love it. Why? Because deep in
the heart of Saul I’m sure he remembered that day when the anointing
oil was upon him, and when he went out and prophesied with the prophets
– he felt the Presence of God, and when this young lad came in and
played his harp and sang to him, it brought back memories, maybe deep
in his subconscious, and something reached out, and he loved David. It
was a love/hate relationship however, and it went on for some time.

(v23) says; “So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came
to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand, and Saul
would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from
him.” Now what am I saying? I am saying that David – the new order –
ministered in the house of Saul – the old order – and brought it some
comfort and brought it some release from it’s inevitable destiny of
death. There was an overlap for a time. David ministered to Saul even
though the Spirit of the Lord left him and he was tormented by demon
powers. God ordained that the new visitation should minister to the
old.

The Tragic Account of Jonathan:
Now let’s turn to chapter 18. We have the beautiful story of David
and Jonathan that I don’t have time to go into – other than to say that
Jonathan to me personally is one of the most pathetic figures in the
Bible. He loved David and he championed him. He believed in him, and
if you will read the Bible carefully, the covenant was from Jonathan’s
side. The overtures were from Jonathan. There is no question that
David responded – all you have to do is to read the poignant passages
of David’s lament when he heard of Saul and Jonathan’s death – to know
that David loved Jonathan deeply. Jonathan saw the anointing – he felt
the anointing – he was an anointed boy himself. He knew what it was to
go out single-handedly with his armour bearer and clean up a whole host
of Philistines. He knew what it was to walk in the honey bath of God’s
glory until his eyes sparkled with the anointing. Jonathan was a
beautiful character! But he made one mistake – he didn’t go with David
and it was a fatal mistake. In that battle when Saul and his son
Jonathan fell together, the tragedy was that Saul somehow deserved it.
He had spent his days. He disobeyed. He had fought with God. He had
fought with a prophet. He had not consulted the ark. He had been a
Head and Shoulders Man, but that beautiful young fellow beside him –
his son – his boy. He was a man of integrity. He had the sparkle of
heaven’s blessing in his eye. He had known how to wheld a sword and
how to walk in the Spirit. He had held company with God’s great king
David in the days of his embryonic youth to kingship. He made one
fatal mistake however. He didn’t leave the Head and Shoulders thing
when he should have, and he died with it.

I am constantly asked a question that I am sure every minister who
is moving in what God is doing is asked at some time or another, and
that is, “What shall I do in relation to this situation or that? Shall
I do this or do that?” I can’t tell you what. Let me tell you that any
man of God who tries to tell you what to do, I feel, is moving out of
the orb of his responsibility and his right. If God has given you His
blessed Holy Spirit and He has given you a heart to love Him, then God
will let you know what to do and when you are to do it, and be sure
that your heart is prepared for what you have to do. Don’t fall into
the trap of Samuel and be sentimentally and nostalgically attached to
something that God has left. When the hour comes to move – be ready to
move! Lest you die with Saul.
I was asked to conduct a seminar in an American city in a great large
Presbyterian church. In the night we had a public service and in the
afternoons I spent two or three hours with ministers in the city from
all different denominational backgrounds, and at the end of my time of
ministry with the ministers on the last afternoon when we had closed,
one of them stood up and said, “We have so appreciated this. I wonder
if Dr Baxter would stay another hour and we will sit around informally
and chat.” I said, “I’d be glad to.” My wife had come to pick me up and
the ministers meetings were held in quite a large chapel. She was
sitting at the back waiting to drive me back to our hotel, and she sat
back there while I dialogued with the men. During that week there had
been one man there who had been identified to me as a Roman Catholic
priest. Later I found out that he was a Trappist monk. I was never
able to read his face – I never could quite tell whether he was
agreeing with me or disagreeing with me or just where he was. But
after we got comfortably seated in a less formal manner (because I had
been teaching from a chalk board), and we were sitting around, the
first one to speak was this priest, and I shall never forget it. He
was like a little boy crying in the dark.

He said very quietly, “I buy everything this man has said. There is
nothing he has said that I do not buy – but my church will not buy it.”
Then he looked at me and said, “What shall I do?” I can’t tell you how
I felt. There was something in my heart that was very paternal – I had
felt it when my children were tiny, and they had hurt themselves, and I
ran and picked them up in my arms. I wanted to carry him into the will
of God. I had an emotional response that I can still feel. Yet I knew
it wasn’t right, and I remember I said to him very simply, “Brother my
heart goes out to you, and I love you in Christ, and I want to do at
this moment whatever I can do for you.” But I said, “If I were to tell
you what to do that wouldn’t be good enough. It’s not good enough to
do something because Baxter said. You’ve got to go on a ‘Thus saith
the Lord.’ A ‘Thus saith Baxter’ is not good enough! I will tell you
what I will do. I will pray for you and I will hold you before God
that you will know what to do.” He smiled back and said thank you.
Then we went on. Three months later I was talking to the Lutheran
minister in the city who had organised the seminar. And I said, “How
is my Roman Catholic friend doing?” “Oh” he said, “Great.” I said,
“Tell me about him.” He said, “After you left he went to his bishop and
asked for a years leave of absence to find the will of God.” I thought
as I heard that how many of us would inconvenienced our careers and
jeopardise our future to find the will of God? He found the will of
God and incidentally found a delightful wife and a beautiful ministry
and today is a very happy shepherd of a group of God’s people. The
last time I found him he was radiant and didn’t blame me at all. He
said, “This is the way the Lord has led me,” and as he said it, I knew
that he was walking in the way the Lord had led him.

This is why to me Jonathan is so pathetic. Remember what he said in
one of those tender scenes with David? He said, “David I know that
someday you will be king, and I will be at your side.” The beauty of
this man – his character always enchants me. There is no ambition. He
saw God in David – he saw the anointing in David. He saw David as
God’s king and while it was his by right, yet he knew where the
anointing was and he was quite prepared to pass up his right to be king
and for David to be king; he would gladly be at his side. But he
missed it. There is a time in the affairs of men. Sam Jones – the
great American evangelist – used to tell a story and he would apply it
to sinners, but I am applying it these days to us in this moment of
crisis. He said there was a little boy who lived down by the seashore
and on the sands there was a hulk of a big ship. The little boy took
an interest in that ship and he almost personalised it. He would watch
as the tide came in and as it moved with the tidal waters he would say,
“Go out old ship! Go out! This is your chance – go out!” The ship
would creak and groan and almost look as though it would catch the tide
and go, and the little boy would shout and throw his hat in the air,
and he would say, “Go out old ship! Go out!” Every high tide would
find this little boy down there rooting for the ship to go out. One
day he went down and the tide seemed higher than ever and stronger and
the chances were greater than ever before. He screamed his voice
hoarse and shouted, “Go out old ship! Go out! This is your chance!
Go out!” He watched the tide go out, but the ship stayed in, and then
something terrible happened. With a final groan the ship disintegrated
on the sand, and the little boy threw himself down on the shore and he
sobbed and said, “Now you’ll never go out old ship. Now you’ll never
go out.” There comes a time when the tide is right. Jonathan missed it
and he never went out. I’m sure that up into David’s old years there
was many a time when David would sit quietly and think with great
emotion of what it might have been if the man whom he loved with a love
that is celebrated as being one of the finest demonstrations of manly
love – if only he had lived. But he died because he made a wrong
choice.

Let’s look at chapter 18:6. David has taken care of the great
Philistine; “and it happened as they returned David from killing the
Philistine that the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing
and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy and musical
instruments. The women sang as they played and said, ‘Saul has slain
his thousands and David his ten thousand.’ Then Saul became very angry
for this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They have ascribed to David
ten thousand but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can
he have but the kingdom?’ And Saul looked at David with suspicion from
that day on.”

Now what was it that precipitated the confrontation between the Head
and Shoulders Man and the heart man? For David was a man after God’s
heart! God didn’t choose David because he was Head and Shoulders. God
took him from the sheepfold – from out there tending sheep. He was
just a strapping youth. You don’t pick out those kind of people to be
king. God saw something in that young man – He saw that young man had
a heart. That was the young man who spoke about his “heart panting
after God as the hart pants after the water brook.” He knew here was a
man in whom was integrity, not perfection. He would make his mistakes
– there would be the awful Bathsheba thing. Trust men to make more of
that than anything else!

Isn’t it amazing how a man’s mistake is monumental, but all his acts
of service are forgotten. God certainly had no sense of approval of
the Bathsheba thing, but that one blot on David did not deny him the
right to be called a man after God’s own heart. “I love Thy law,” he
said. “I will walk in My integrity – Thou art my God – Thou art my
rock and my strong tower! Thou art my salvation! When my enemies are
against me in Thee will I trust – Thy Name is as a strong tower.” Oh,
he loved his God! How he had a heart for God and God saw it! He was
only a boy tending his father’s sheep.

I feel that the Spirit of God is saying to me tonight that there are
in this tent young people who have that kind of a heart. I’ve already
said it to the leaders of this convention, that I believe that there
are young people here who will be apostles and prophets and evangelists
and shepherds in the days that are ahead. There’s openness in some of
your countenance. There’s something that comes to me – I feel Kingdom
vibrations coming from some of you young people. I believe they are
material for the Kingdom. I believe they are material for what God is
doing in this hour .

But I urge you in God’s Name – read the Psalms. Make them your
vocabulary. Read five of them every morning and one chapter of
Proverbs and you will go through the Psalms and the Proverbs once a
month and you will learn how to live towards God and live towards man
and you will become God’s kind of king.

When was it that Saul got upset with David? It was when David
started to accomplish things that Saul couldn’t accomplish. As long as
David was just the nice son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who came in for
special times to sing songs to him he loved him – that was lovely.
After all it was nice to have a revival in the old church. A little
stirring every now and then – that was nice. It’s good to have a lift
every now and then. But of course we have no intention of changing the
whole court. You see what we have here is a man going down and a man
coming up. The man going down doesn’t know he’s going down. And he
doesn’t know that the other man is going up until there comes the
collision with Goliath. When David proved that he was a man with the
anointing to deal with the enemies of the Lord, and all Israel
recognises it and sings an anthem of acclamation to him – aha! Now
Saul sees things differently. As long as you’re inconsequential, as
long as you’re not disturbing the status quo too much – get blessed,
but don’t rock the boat. If you want to have a meeting in your house
Friday night go ahead, but don’t make a big thing of it and for
goodness sake don’t go having a revival. (*laughter*). Because that
will just upset everything. If you don’t make much fuss I won’t have
to say anything to the superiors. (*laughter*).

(v9); “And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on.”
How many know anything about this? “Now it came about on the next day
that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul and he raved in
the midst of the house while David was playing his harp as usual, and a
spear was in Saul’s hand, and he hurled the spear at David for he
thought, ‘I will pin David to the wall’ but David escaped from his
presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David for the Lord was with
him. But he departed from Saul.”

It’s amazing when people stop flowing in God, and are yet involved
in Head and Shoulders religion – they become stupid. Imagine Saul,
knowing that God was with this man, and yet he tried to kill him! This
is the same stupidity that you see in the Pharisees and the Sadducees –
the very same thing. They said, “There’s no question that He is doing
miracles and He is attractive to the crowd – there’s no question about
that but we’ve got to get rid of Him.” They tried to kill Him! The
very first time He spoke, they tried to kill Him, and after Christ
ascended to haven, and sent His Spirit back, and His apostles went out,
they tried to do the same thing with them! That a miracle is done,
there’s no question, but don’t let the word get around! You see when
the Spirit of God moves out of religion, men become stupid. I am going
to tell you something tonight – I might as well get my head cut off
anyway. (*laughter*). God is going to do this thing whether Saul
likes it or not. God is going to have a people in the earth whatever
Head and Shoulders government wants to do about it – they can try and
kill him if they want – but they will not succeed. Jesus shall reign
where’er the sun doth its successive journeys run.

This Head and Shoulders thing reminds me of the siege at Samaria.
The Bible says that all they had left to eat was asses’ heads and
doves’ dung. Now that’s not a pretty diet is it? What does that
mean? Asses’ heads stands for human wisdom. (*laughter*). And doves’
dung stands for all that is left of the dove after the dove has gone.
When the Spirit of the Lord leaves religion all that is left is human
wisdom and empty form. Where was the Spirit? The Spirit was with
David. The Spirit had left Saul. Now look – don’t fuss with me. Go
fuss with the Book! I didn’t write it! (*laughter*).

Now if you are listening to me you may be able to see the
handwriting on the wall. I’m not saying for whom. But at that point
when David ceased to be a nice little Psalm-singing, happy brother,
bringing visitations of blessing into the court, as long as that was
it, that was fine. But when his influence grew and he became a man of
war and was doing what Saul should have been doing but couldn’t because
the Spirit had left him, the whole thing changed. When the new
anointing gained momentum … now look I may be a million miles off but I
don’t think so. If what I see going on across the earth tonight is
what I think I see, I see the Davidic anointing, as it is gaining
momentum, and a few years ago we were just a bunch of Psalm singers
that were bringing a bit of pleasure into the Head and Shoulders
court. But now bless God, we are killing our tens of thousands, glory
to God, and the diabolic world is feeling the reverberations of our
voice as it speaks with the authority of the risen Christ, and the army
of the Lord is getting ready … (*applause*).

Brothers and sisters I’m not a young man and I haven’t got the time
to make silly sensational statements. I haven’t got the time to preach
to the gallery. If I have come to England for your applause or to
preach you a sermon, then I am not what I think I am . I believe with
all my heart tonight, from what I see across the earth (and for me to
travel across the earth is an inconvenience), that if I what I see
happening was just someone preaching to a tent full of crazy fanatics
who would believe my way if they were the only people in the world,
then I would be persuaded that we are cracked, and we are just a bunch
of people who are hallucinating. But I want you to know that in every
nation under the sun, some more and some less, there are crowds like
this from every denominational background, who are meeting in tents and
halls and public buildings and open fields and wherever, and the same
thing is being said, and the same volume of praise is going up to God,
and the same choruses are being sung and the same hymns are being
hymned and the same Psalms are being psalmed and the same shouts are
being shouted – it’s all over the earth! The army of the Lord is
forming! (*applause*).

And so it became inevitable that David had to go. Without going
into chapter 20 (you can read it for yourself), it was obvious that
Saul would have killed him. David had been warned by Jonathan, and he
was evicted from Saul’s court. He was kicked out! Now he wasn’t
kicked out of the Hittites or the Jebusites. He wasn’t kicked out of
the Rotary club. (*laughter*). He was kicked out of the Head and
Shoulders representation of Jehovah’s community. He was put out, and
you don’t have to agree with my interpretation, but I believe that if
we have a valid analogy here, that as this thing starts to grow, there
will inevitably be a confrontation, and you can rest assured that the
hour will undoubtedly come when we will be persona non grata in places
where we are yet invited to bring our hearts. But when that happens it
is on to Ziklag, and then to Hebron, and then to Zion. Hallelujah!
Now I have imposed on you so badly for two nights that I am going to
give you a short one tonight and let you out real early.

We will finish with this point and it is a very important one. Saul
was still the nominal king, and after he had put David out, David went
to the cave of Adullum, and eventually to Ziklag, and had to find a
place among the Philistines to live. Now you can give this any name
you like. It could be that you could say that David was driven
underground. I want you to know that you are not only ordained for
goose bumps. You are ordained for lumps. We are not only ordained for
blessing, but also for suffering. If you haven’t incorporated that
into your Scriptural philosophy, then you had better hurry up and get
it in. Preachers that go around telling you that when you become a
Christian and commit yourself to God, you will find yourself on a
velvet cushion being whisked through life and brought comfortably into
His Presence are not telling it the way it is.

There is a paradoxical passage in Thessalonians that says that they
received the Word of the Lord with much persecution and joy of the Holy
Ghost. When Paul and Silas sat in a jail at midnight in the maximum
security section – their backs running bloody from the deep wounds
created by the Romans cat-o-nine tails, as they sat there with the rats
running beneath their feet at midnight (what more desperate plight?),
with no light, no lamp, but darkness, Paul said, “How are you doing
there Brother Silas?” “Fine Brother Paul and how is it with you?”
“Good. Feel like a little song?” (*laughter*). “Well frankly Brother
Paul, I don’t feel like a song, but my heart is happy. What will we
sing?” “Well, what about Number 5 in the Redemption?” (*laughter*).

Now the Bible says that they sang at midnight, and there was an
earthquake, and all the prison doors were flung open. When God’s
people can sing in the midnight of their trouble, they will be the
community of heaven and the prison doors will be flung open and the
world will cry, “What must I do to be saved?” We are destined for
suffering! We are destined for misunderstanding. We are destined to be
maligned and lied about. But if we can hold fast in our heart and know
that we are sharing in what we are seeing in the analogy of David and
Saul – that there is a period of overlap and a period of transition
from the Head and Shoulders thing to the formation of David’s Army –
and that we are going on to take Mount Zion – the joy of the whole
earth – if we can see that, we will hold steady in the darkness of
night, and know that our hour has to come.

Binding the Strongman.
But God is fitting us for a big job, for this might well be the
generation that is to go into the land and prove to the world that
Christ wasn’t just talking when He said, “I will build a church that
will kick the gates of hell in.” That isn’t what He said! No, but
that’s what He meant. You see it is that strange perversity in
Scripture in terms of circumstance instead of revelation. So all my
life I have head it taught this way, “On this rock I will build My
church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Then I hear
people saying, “I’m glad I’m a Christian. I’m glad I’m in the Church
because the devil can’t get at me. And I’m so glad I’m here and I’m
waiting for the Lord to come and get me out of the mess and I hope the
bus comes soon!” (*laughter*). That isn’t what He said! He said, “I
will build a congregation that will get the job done.” That Greek word
“ecclesia” means congregation. Seventy times in the Septuagint
version, the word “congregation” is translated “ecclesia” and when He
said to His disciples, “I will build My congregation.” He was saying
something! When you come to the book of Hebrews you find out what He
was saying. He said, “Moses as servant over the house was faithful,
but Christ is Son over the house.” Moses couldn’t take them into rest.
Joshua couldn’t take them into rest. Jesus said Moses’ congregation
didn’t make it. But I am going to have a congregation that is going to
make it. They’re going to break the gates of hell in. It’s not a
matter of the devil not getting at me – look out devil here I come!
(*laughter*). Hallelujah!

You know we have made a big thing out of exorcism. I believe in
exorcism and I practice it. I believe that I have power to cast out a
demon or demons. But when we come to the last chapter of Ephesians,
the apostle Paul is not talking about me casting out a demon or you
casting out a demon. He’s talking about something bigger than that.
I’m going to tell you – I don’t think Satan is too much concerned about
us casting out a few demons here and there. Any great army general
knows that there has got to be a few casualties. So if he loses a few
demons here and there, I don’t think he will be too upset. But listen
to what Paul says, “Finally brethren.” Not “finally brother.” “Finally
brethren.” And then he grabs hold of a whole fistful of Greek words
that are just full of divine dynamite. “Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might.” Strong! Power! Might! Three tremendous
Greek words, and when you put them together they spell God unleashed!
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. “Put on the whole
armour of God, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers and the rulers of the dark places of this age
and spiritual wickedness.” Now here is where we have been on a one to
one basis. Along comes Brother Jones and casts out a few demons.
Everyone says, “Hallelujah isn’t that marvellous?” The devil says, “I
sure hope that they keep on thinking that is marvellous. I hope that
they don’t realise that I don’t care that much about that really in the
final analysis.” What’s he concerned about? He is concerned that if
you find out that God Almighty through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit
has equipped us as a church not only to deal with spiritual wickedness,
but that we can deal with the princes, the deputies and the
under-rulers.

Tonight there is a dark, satanic, angelic power hovering over the
capitol building of every nation of the earth? There is a Prince of
England, a Prince of Canada, a Prince of the United States; there is a
Prince of Russia – to whom Satan has delegated authority to exercise
his diabolical influence over that nation. Then they pick strategic
spots in the nation, and they send deputies to those places – for
remember that Satan and his powers are not omni-present.

Now I know a little bit about your country because I saw some of it
when I was here last time, but there are cities in England and America
that are undoubtedly ruled by satanic deputies. And then there are the
rulers of the dark places. We haven’t begun to dislodge them. We
haven’t begun to touch the gates of hell. God is going to have a
people that will dislodge those powers. I believe the hour is coming
when we will change things at city hall. I believe the hour is coming
when we won’t have to petition against pornography. We will get
together as the People of God and we will unleash God into those
situations and blow them to smithereens. I believe the hour is coming
when our Sunday morning prayer will find its answer in the Monday
morning paper. I believe the time will come when we will start to pray
with such corporate intelligence that when men put their pen on a
ballot to vote in the halls of legislation they will go to vote one
way, and something will push their hand over and they will vote
another! That’s the angel I sent. “I will build My church and the
gates of hell will not prevail.”

Now while Saul was still king, David was hitched out and Saul tried
to kill him. On two occasions David could have killed Saul. Please
listen to this carefully. This is important. Twice David could have
killed Saul. He had him right in his hand. His friends said, “Kill
him! He tried to kill you. Kill him!” David said, “No. He’s still a
nominal authority and it’s not my job to kill him. I am God’s anointed
and God will have to take care of him.” If you can understand tonight
that heart people must not try to kill Head and Shoulders people, I am
reading things these days that grieve me. As I read about men who are
trying to kill Saul, I don’t have to kill Saul. Frankly deep in my
heart, I would be something like Samuel, if I didn’t stop myself. I
feel sorry for Saul. I could look at the great monuments to the
revivals of the past that are sprinkled across the earth, that tell of
great visitations of other days, that tell us of men who like Saul had
a change of heart and an anointing of the Spirit. I don’t want to chop
down steeples and deal with the men who want to kill me in revenge. I
don’t have that feeling tonight – I can’t find it in me to want to do
that, and if you find it in you, that’s not a heart man.

You don’t have to kill him. Nor do you have to get any pleasure out
of the fact when I tell you that God is going to kill him. Because
when God killed Saul and the word came to David, you read in the first
chapter of 2nd Samuel that David rent his clothes and he wept and wrote
one of the most beautiful passages in all literature as he sung and
eulogised Saul and Jonathan. Brothers and sisters the men that may be
on your back tonight, the men that may be trying to pin you to the
wall, are men of a tradition that can be traced back to some very
beautiful things. And I’m not going to get involved in names tonight
but our history is filled with men who started well, but the thing they
started became a Head and Shoulders thing, and I tell you something
else, if we are not careful, the thing that God is doing now could
become a Head and Shoulders thing too. I was pleased to hear Arthur
say what he did about the charismatic movement. I don’t like the word
“charismatic.” I don’t like anything that divides me from anyone else.
I have only one word that I feel is right to use and that is either
Christian or believer or disciple. I have no right to use a term that
will divide me from any other man that calls Jesus Lord.

Up in our country in Canada a couple of years ago we were having
Brother Derek Prince and a few others come up for a conference, and
since I was the senior minister in the area, they asked if they could
use our sanctuary to host the meeting, and our sanctuary seated 1200,
so we said, “Fine,” we would. They asked if we would prepare the
brochure as we had our own printing establishment in our church
complex. We were going to call it the “Pacific Northwest Charismatic
Conference” and a young man in the printing room brought in the first
rough draft of the brochure and he sat it down in front of me. I was
going to proof read it for any changes, and as I looked at the front –
“Pacific Northwest Charismatic,” and as I got to “Charismatic,” as sure
as I am standing here – God said to me, “What’s that word?” I said,
“Charismatic.” He said, “That’s divisive.” I said, “You’re right,” and
called the young man in and said, “Charismatic has got to go. There is
only one word that we are going to put in there and that is the
‘Pacific Northwest Christian Conference.’” I was so pleased when Arthur
made the point that is accurate, and that is that every, and any man
who has come into the life of God, has come into the charismatic
dimension. Every real Christian is a charismatic. Now the extent of
charismatic involvement varies in this room tonight, but let us not
divide God’s people. I will declare myself a brother to any man or
woman in this arena who calls Jesus Christ Lord. They may slam the
door of rejection in my face, but I will lay my love on them. I will
declare they are my brother and sister in Christ. I will make this
affirmation before devils and demons. I will not be party to
division. Every man who sincerely declares Christ to be his Lord – he
is my brother. I don’t care whether he is Armenian or Calvinistic,
Pre-mill, A-mill, Post-mill or Pan-Mill. (*laughter*). You say, “What
in the world is a Pan-Mill?” (*laughter*). Well that just means it
will all pan out in the end. (*laughter*). Don’t play God.

The road to Zion is not easy but it’s sure. You don’t have to deal
with Saul – God will deal with him. Don’t go round trying to kill the
people that are trying to kill you. That is not God’s order. Just
build the Kingdom. Just keep on building. Just keep on loving. There
is nothing that will make some carnal Christians madder than you being
happy. (*laughter*). You know that yourself. Have you ever had a
down day? You know when you are kind of out of touch with God, and
along comes one of those perpetually happy brothers. (*laughter*).
You know the kind I mean? They never have a low moment. “Praise the
Lord brother! Praise the Lord!” You’d like to give them a one-way trip
to the moon. Don’t try to kill what is already dead. Feel sorry for
it. Reach out. If they will still let you – sing to them. If you can
calm their tortured souls, play your harp. If they drive you into
exile, then know one thing – we’re marching to Zion. Hallelujah!
Tomorrow night we will talk about the Army. God is forming an army!

For more detailed information about the vision of the Communion of Apostolic Churches, what we believe, and how we are structured and governed see page entitled Constitution.

Also, for details about becoming a member network or jurisdiction of churches, a member minister, and/or congregation you may write the CAC in care of the Presiding Apostle George Kouri at gekouri@mac.com.